In 1974 when Richard Nixon delivered his resignation speech, just before the inevitable impeachment, I was sitting in the home of Harvard Professor Jim Hagler just outside Boston.
I was seeing first hand the implosion of a presidency from the perspective of a 22 year old Aussie who had by that time a pretty good education, but absolutely no experience beyond the surf, meat pies, beer and university shenanigans that had been my life.
And yet, here I was seeing the anguish of Americans as they struggled with a presidency that had failed on the two counts that really mattered to them.
- The personal qualities that it took an individual to be their President,
- The rule of law and order, let alone the constitution in which so many Americans are invested in a way alien to Australians.
The world has changed somewhat since 1974, but our expectations and hopes of leadership have not, despite the evidence of the past 43 years, in both America and here in Australia.
However we still fervently hope and believe that our leaders are worthy, and when they prove not to be, we feel betrayed.
Trump has sowed the seeds of his own destruction via twitter.
He seems to think that behaviour that drives ratings as the host of a shock jock TV show is transferable to the office of the President.
Thankfully, it appears there is a difference after all.
Part of Trump’s appeal was I suspect that he was able to sell himself as a successful business leader and entrepreneur. Those skills that made him good at business would suit him to run the biggest enterprise in the country, the government, and bring some accountability to the bloated bureaucratic processes, without any of the baggage that comes with political and government experience .
Has not gone so well so far!.
If Congress was acting as a company board, as they should be, after all they are the representatives of the shareholders, they would be insisting on his resignation about now. The current rumblings of an impeachment that will never happen because you need a 2/3 majority in the senate to ‘convict’ would be replaced in corporate life by one of those terminal conversations so loved on the ‘Apprentice’ TV show.
No CEO of a competently run public company could survive the apparent conflicts of interest, loose mouth, inconsistent and shambolic behaviour, clear contradictions of positions taken almost in the same sentence, and outright lies that have characterised the first 4 months of the Trump white house.
We are better off here in Australia, but perhaps only just.
The spectacle during the week of various non entity politicians, along with several of some political status personally bagging Ken Henry as chairman of NAB when he dared to disagree with them, and articulate what any sensible person already knew, is a disgrace.
The treasurer a few weeks ago was encouraging political debate, encouraging the expression of views, and the first time it happens afterwards he and his colleagues go immediately for the language of personal vilification, ignoring the arguments.
On balance, I prefer it here, but what would we give for some genuine leadership without the shadow of self interest, power for its own sake, and sheer bloody-minded hubris?
